Truth is, even pure sine inverters are square wave inverters at heart. But as opposed to simply making a square wave (or modified one) at 60 hz, pure sine inverters AND the big motor controllers create square waves at very high frequencies, usually 50khz up to sometimes even into the megahertz range, and then those frequencies are pulse width (or similar) modulated so that their energy content is a 60 hz sine wave; the high frequency portion is then filtered out either by LC elements in an inverter or in the case of your big AC motors, by their inherent inductance, and the final result is that the load (motor etc that needs to see a pure sine wave) actually does see a pure sine wave at 60hz, even though the reality is that the sine wave is actually being created by high frequency square waves. Make any sense?

Heck, it's all in the smoke. Keep the stuff inside the wires and anything goes... let it out however it happens, and stuff quits working....

Truth is, even pure sine inverters are square wave inverters at heart. But as opposed to simply making a square wave (or modified one) at 60 hz, pure sine inverters AND the big motor controllers create square waves at very high frequencies, usually 50khz up to sometimes even into the megahertz range, and then those frequencies are pulse width (or similar) modulated so that their energy content is a 60 hz sine wave; the high frequency portion is then filtered out either by LC elements in an inverter or in the case of your big AC motors, by their inherent inductance, and the final result is that the load (motor etc that needs to see a pure sine wave) actually does see a pure sine wave at 60hz, even though the reality is that the sine wave is actually being created by high frequency square waves. Make any sense?

Heck, it's all in the smoke. Keep the stuff inside the wires and anything goes... let it out however it happens, and stuff quits working....

Thanks for the technical explanation Boogie.

Some of the equipment I used to manufacture used the three phase PWM motor drives to convert the 300 or 600 volt DC from a battery bank to sine wave AC for computer systems. I utilized a pi type LC filter to remove the harmonics and get a pure 60 hertz sine wave. Just never really knew all the technical details. The fun we used to have. LOL

Richard

Logged

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a good Reisling in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming: WOO HOO, what a ride

Sean, I have 2- 2012 stacked and I posted they were modified sine replacing them with 1 new Magnum pure sine when Dick can get it for me

Yes, sorry -- I missed the word "modified" when I read your original post. I went back and deleted my comments after I realized my mistake. Not soon enough, I see

FWIW, I would definitely not try to run an induction cooktop on anything other than a pure sine unit. For that matter, I wouldn't run any inductive loads on anything but pure sine. As Gary said, it's just not worth the worry, or even the performance penalty.